PPA Tour Europe has spent most of its young life sounding Spanish. Barcelona opened the unified calendar in September. Italy and the usual continental stops fill the rest of the rumour mill. This weekend the circuit actually lands in France — a P125 at JOCO Pickleball in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, Friday 13 to Sunday 15 November, amateurs from Thursday — and for once the entry list looks like a European tour rather than a travelling exhibition with French flags on the bunting.
I like that more than the calendar coincidence of APP Arizona running the same four days in Mesa. Different tour. Different field. Different argument. Lille’s argument is simpler: can this circuit put a proper French stop on the board and fill it with the people who are supposed to belong there?
The French names are not window dressing
Cyril Peltier and Théo Platel are contracted PPA Tour Europe professionals, and they are entered. Local French coverage had already named them among the domestic names to watch at JOCO, and both are entered. That sentence should not feel like news. It does, because too many “European” weeks still read as if the contracted home players were optional colour.
Platel sits at men’s WPR No. 174 with 225 points on the tour’s published signed-pro board — the highest men’s WPR among contracted players in this Lille field. Peltier is No. 247 with 103.55. Both are in men’s singles. In men’s doubles, Peltier pairs with Maxence Schirrecker and Platel with Boris Paque. In mixed, Peltier is with Myriam Enmer — once, and only once. Marina Sičić is paired with Platel. Enmer is also in women’s singles and women’s doubles with Raquel Amaro.
Around them the men’s singles field runs to 28 names: Clovis Dame, Aubin Duchier, Nicolas Ebran, Alban Sauce, Schirrecker, Mathieu Roy, Stephane Falcoz and others sit alongside the contracted core. Where Local Actu already called Peltier and Platel domestic, that claim stands; the rest stay names on a list.
Ling and Tomkinson, and the pairs they entered
James Ling and Ellie Tomkinson took mixed doubles bronze at the P250 Barcelona Open in September. Lille puts them back together in mixed. Ling is in men’s singles and men’s doubles with Martin Thomas. Tomkinson is in women’s singles and women’s doubles with Marina Sičić. The mixed bronze pair is together again: Tomkinson / Ling. Mixed as a whole now runs to 27 registered pairs, with three more names on the waitlist and no partners shown beside them.
Men’s doubles, on the event card, is 24 registered pairs and one waitlist name. The player-card partner list is slightly messier: 25 named pairs, which is why a named partner is not proof that both players are registered. Biedermann / Karbownik; Ebran / Kaszoni; Paque / Platel; Peltier / Schirrecker; Thomas / Ling; Seccia / Vendrame; Syromolotov Netrebin / Sánchez Vidal; Peck / Bobby Fitzpatrick; Sauce / Dame; Duchier / Ronan Le Roch; Hai Bui Manh / Đạt Trần are on that list. Stephane Falcoz is listed with Benjamin Racine, but Racine is still marked Not Registered. Treat that as a named pairing, not a completed one. Aditya Ruhela sits on the men’s doubles waitlist without a partner.
Women’s doubles, 15 pairs: Nothnagel / Owczarek; Enmer / Amaro; Tomkinson / Sičić; Fitzpatrick / Kate Tynan; Kanichová / Klara Thell-Lenntorp; Alvarez / Thaila Rodrigues; Van Hoek / Noesjka Brink; Zapletalová / Ornella Ohayon; and the Pemberton sisters, Payton and Britton, among others.
Katie Morris — women’s WPR No. 97, three Barcelona podiums — is not entered. Tom Protzek and Arwid Dahlin are not entered. Those are PPA Tour Europe absences, measured against the tour’s own roster.
Barcelona is still the form book
Mikołaj Biedermann took men’s singles bronze in Barcelona and is in Lille singles, doubles with Bartosz Karbownik, and mixed with Caroline Nothnagel. Krisztian Kaszoni — who beat Zane Navratil 11–2, 11–2 in Barcelona — is in singles and doubles with Ebran, and in mixed with Anna Marija Bukina. Alberto Seccia and Héctor Sánchez Vidal are in men’s singles. Owczarek is the highest-ranked contracted woman entered (WPR No. 188, 116.75 points) and pairs with Nothnagel in women’s doubles — partnership context from WPM’s RTA1000 Vienna reporting, not a borrowed medal from another tour.
The senior offer is one pair. Say it plainly.
Ask for seniors at Lille and the honest answer is uncomfortable.
There is no 50+ or 60+ professional event on this P125. The only populated age-restricted senior bracket on the 10 November Events cards is Men’s Doubles, skill 3.49 and under, age 50+ — one named pair: Eric Bosseler and Jean Guyon. The schedule still lists 50+ men’s singles bands, but no registered entries appeared for them. That is not a Champions slate. That is not Masters. That is a recreational age band with two names on it.
APP Arizona, the same four days, is running full AARP Champions and Masters pro brackets with dozens of senior teams. PPA Tour Europe’s French debut has one pair. If the circuit wants to be taken seriously as a professional home for European players who are also getting older, this is the gap the entry list just published. I am not inventing a senior story Lille did not stage. I am describing the one it did.
Money, format, and what the week is for
Prize money for contracted PPA professionals: gender doubles €1,200 / €600 / €350 / €300 per team (plus €75 at the quarters); mixed €1,000 / €500 / €300 / €250 (plus €75); singles €300 / €175 / €100 / €75 (plus €30). Unsigned players ask the organisers. Pro format: double elimination without a come-around; main draw best of three to 11, win by two; consolation one game to 15; medal matches best of three to 11. UPA-A rules. Lifetime LT48. Signed players first by PPA points. Schedule skeleton: amateurs Thursday; men’s and women’s singles Friday; doubles Saturday; mixed Sunday. Local coverage has described spectator entry as free within capacity — confirm on site. Smash Pickleball Agency is named as organiser. Points count toward PPA Tour Europe and international PPA points.
Platel is the highest WPR contracted man entered. Owczarek is the highest WPR contracted woman entered. Ling and Tomkinson bring Barcelona mixed bronze. Biedermann brings Barcelona men’s singles bronze. Racine is still marked Not Registered, so Falcoz’s men’s doubles remains a named pairing rather than a completed one. Peltier’s mixed entry is now clean: Enmer, and only Enmer. The senior offer is one 3.49 pair.
If PPA Tour Europe wants to be taken seriously north of Spain, the open pro list at Lille is what that is supposed to look like. The senior list is what it still refuses to look like.
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine, published by World Pickleball Media Ltd. He follows the global game closely, reporting on news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball…
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